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Saturday, November 26, 2011

Shopping on Black Friday has become a tradition for me, well, at least for the past few years. Usually I have my shopping partner with me (my awesome sister-in-law), but this year, sadly, we had to tackle the madness alone since our schedules didn't permit us to travel. She's in VA and I'm in NC. :(

I had to brave this all by lonesome. I was somewhat excited to see that my usual favorite Black Friday stops were opening at Midnight. At first I thought this was crazy, but after realizing that it meant I could simply go out to shop at the end of the night, when I would normally be up anyway (I'm a night owl!), instead of going to sleep and waking up at 2 or 3am.

I knew there was the possibility of a long line so I headed out around 11 p.m. I'm glad I did because by the time I got there, there was already 150+ people in line. I was the 157th person in line. The people in line were friendly and so were the security guards, which kinda gave me a good feeling that I wouldn't get trampled on! They had a great system in place to ensure people who were waiting in their {warm} cars wouldn't be able to torpedo through the line that we all waiting so patiently in. Yay! I was the 3rd group in. I was even given this cool glow in the dark thingy to wear to reflect that I was the last of the 3rd group, which meant I had 15 seconds to get it the store and dart FAST to ensure no one could run over me! I knew exactly where I wanted to go once inside the store... the same place everybody else did, the electronics department!

I had my eyes on the featured camera doorbuster, the Nikon Coolpix L105 for $99! I was SOOO happy to actually get my hands on one, and let me tell you, once it was MY hands I ensured it stayed that way! Let's just say I had a bad experience from two years ago (read about that here)! I had been wanting a better camera for awhile now, and this camera is a TON better than the Sony 'point & shoot' I had. It's not the SLR camera I really, really want, but at $99 I'll take it! I was a happy customer! Target did a great job handling the chaos! About 45 minutes after I entered, I was now on my way to the next stop, Old Navy.

I arrived at Old Navy around 12:45 or so and was surprised to see there were still people in line outside the store! I quickly learned it was due to the store being at its fire code capacity. They let 10 people in when 10 people exited. Crazy! I really only wanted to check out their $29 pea coats and I almost left because I was freezing, but I held in there. I was only in line for about 20 minutes. I immediately noticed that the store was a WRECK, but I honestly expected no less. It was really hard to even find what you were looking for but after about 10 minutes I finally found the coat I wanted in my size. It's astonishing to me how sloppy people can be! I witnessed people kicking clothes under racks, stepping on clothes, throwing clothes, etc. It was awful! Thankfully my coat didn't look like it had been on the floor, so that was plus. I found 4 $1 scarves that I liked too which was an added bonus. I didn't see anything else that stuck out to me so I ventured to find the line. Let me tell you, I was SHOCKED to see that the line wrapped around the inside of the store all the way back to the front door! I almost left, but I had come too far at this point, so I pressed on. Over 1.5 hours later, and almost needing to be pushed through the line because I swear I nodded off a couple times, I made it to the registers. I was out shortly after 3 a.m. At this point I was T-I-R-E-D!

I contemplated going over to JCPenney's since they opened at 4 p.m., but I didn't think I could stand up anymore so I went home. I figured I could take a nap. This was a mistake. The "nap" turned out to be a 7.5 hour nap. I woke up shortly after 11 a.m. SHOOT! I had less than 2 hours to make it to JCPenney's to check out their boots for $29.99! I threw on the same clothes I took off 7 hours earlier and darted out the door. By the time I made it there the store was in shambles. Again, expected. I didn't find any boots I wanted. Or, I should say there weren't any boots left that I actually liked. Boo! Oh well, I did find some boring sweaters.

This was the longest day/night ever. I had been up since 8:30 a.m. Thursday preparing for our Thanksgiving and hadn't sat down to relax until 7 p.m. or so to watch a movie (Fast Five was kinda awesome). Then, the shopping began. By 2 p.m. Friday afternoon I needed a veg out, sit down & relax moment. Or more like moments... I was SOOOO excited to find out that my new webcam came in from Amazon while I was out! I was elated! I have a new toy and I can't wait to start sharing embarrassing videos with all of you! And yes, there's a 100% chance I will look like dirt from time to time!

Oh yeah, I saw Breaking Dawn again today! This makes #2. I plan on seeing it at least 3-4 more times before it comes out on DVD!

Did you & yours have a great Thanksgiving? Did you venture out for Black Friday shopping? Or, did you stay home in your warm bed and laughed at people like me? LOL!

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Hi, I'm April!

Me in a nutshell: I am a new mom to the best little boy ever. He's taught me that you can't plan EVERYTHING (Check out my birth story!). I don't really remember what life was like before he stole our hearts. I'm married to his daddy, who is quite the baby daddy! He's amazing. We've been together since the beginning of time, or so it feels like it anyway. :-) We're tackling family life one day at a time, all the while trying to enjoy every single minute of it. It goes by FAST!